May 8, 2005
Agence France Presse -
Jews enjoy new religious freedom under Castro
HAVANA May 8
At the Beth Shalom synagogue in Havana, the Cuban flag flies next to that of
Israel, even though the two countries have had no diplomatic relations since
1973.
A bust of Jose Marti, a hero of Cuban independence, stands near the candles
lit for Sabbath prayers. Even Fidel Castro went to one of the Cuban
capital's three synagogues in 1999 in a sign of the emerging religious
freedom in Castro's communist state.
The Jewish community of about 15,000 fell to about 1,000 after Castro's 1959
revolution declared this Caribbean island an atheist state. Now there are
more than 900 people from 403 families in Havana and a few dozen more in the
provinces.
There has been a Jewish community here since the Spanish conquest. Expelled
from Spain by the Catholic Inquisition, some Jews even took part in
Christopher Columbus' expedition that discovered the New World.
But immigration took off toward the end of the 19th century with the arrival
of American Jews -- after the end of the American-Spanish war, some fleeing
pogroms in Eastern Europe and some coming from the Dutch West Indies.
But after Castro's revolution, about 90 percent of the island's Jews fled.
Jose Miller, president of the Jewish community council, known as the
'Patronato' told how Jews were mainly considered part of the rich middle
classes whose land and goods were expropriated and nationalised by the
communist government.
The Patronato has its headquarters in the Beth Shalom synagogue, the biggest
of the three in Havana.
With the revolution, "came a style of life and thought that did not favour
religious practices at all," said Miller, a retired surgeon now in his 80s.
By the end of the 1980s, the Jews who remained believed they had no future,
according to Miller who called it a time of "agony."
But since the middle of the 1990s, there has been a new spirit of openness
toward religion and the faithful have returned to churchs and synagogues. In
1999, Castro went to the Vedado synagogue in Havana where most of Cuba's Jew
still live.
The Cuban and Israeli flags fly over the Patronato.
But help from the United States and Canada has been crucial for the
community, particularly from B'nai Brith, the oldest of the Jewish
non-government organisations, and the American Joint Distribution Committee,
the main US group that helps Jews outside the United States.
Thanks to funds from abroad, foreign religious teachers have also come to
Cuba and the Shin Beth synagogue has been completely renovated.
"Now we are in a position where we can strengthen this rebirth and try to
guarantee our future," said Miller, who insisted that none of the moves were
political.
In Cuba, he assured, "there is a social police that is not far from
biblical."
The aid is crucial in a country where daily conditions are so difficult. A
meal, provided by the foreign organisations, is served each Saturday in the
community centre at the main synagogue.
There is also a special pharmacy, stocked by foreign Jews who take part in
aid work organised by B'nai Brith. Three teams arrive every month, each
staying for eight days. Each person in the group must bring between six and
10 kilogrammes (13 and 22 pounds) of medicines, clothes or food.